COLUMBUS – The Wexner Center for the Arts on the OSU campus will be closed until further notice while authorities investigate a former university employee’s suicide and evaluate damage he caused to artwork on display.
Police say shot and killed himself in a gallery at the campus’ contemporary art museum after vandalizing some artwork just before 11:20 a.m. Sunday, shortly after the museum was scheduled to open for the day with a Picasso-inspired show on display.
“The incident was isolated to the Wexner Center for the Arts, and was reported by on-site public safety personnel. OSU Police and the Columbus Division of Police immediately responded and discovered the individual deceased from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The situation was contained upon their arrival,” acting university police chief Craig Stone said in a statement.
Stone did not identify the man but said he last worked for the school in 2009.
A university spokesman says artwork damage had not been fully assessed.